Kim Dotcom fumes as Megaupload user data gets erased

Kim Dotcom’s old file-hosting website Megaupload has been wiped from the Internet. The website was shut down by the Department of Justice in January of 2012, and Dotcom was arrested and charged with racketeering and money laundering. The data for millions of Megaupload users, however, remained stored on hosting company LeaseWeb’s servers. It was revealed on Wednesday that LeaseWeb wiped its servers in February, effectively erasing Megaupload and its data from the Internet.

Dotcom blasted the company on Twitter, claiming that LeaseWeb’s actions resulted in the “largest data massacre in the history of the Internet.” LeaseWeb’s senior lawyer Alex de Joode explained in a statement to The Verge that it was hosting Megauload’s files for free on 630 servers. After numerous attempts to notify Dotcom, the hosting company repurposed the servers to make them available to paying customers. Dotcom claims that no one from his legal team was notified about the deletion until today.